Staggies playing fortheir futures
OWEN COYLE is warning Ross County’s players they must prove they deserve to be part of his plans heading into 2018.
The Staggies sit second bottom of the Premiership and have won one of their last nine matches ahead of festive fixtures against Hibs, St Johnstone and bottomplaced Partick Thistle.
Coyle is convinced his team deserves to be better off in terms of points. But he insists some of his squad are playing for their futures.
The County boss said: “Ultimately we have to put the pieces in the jigsaw. Going into January we are looking at the areas we would like to strengthen to help the team.
“I said to the players after Saturday’s defeat to Hamilton it’s a simple scenario for me. They need to show me what they want to do here and show me they want to be part of Ross County moving forward.
“They must show they have the necessary tools and abilities and some have done that in fairness.
“I always felt as a player every week I was playing to be in the team for the next week. I desperately wanted to be in that team.
“The only way you do that is by playing very well. If you don’t you leave yourself open to not being in the team.
“That then has a knock-on effect because the more weeks you’re not in the team everybody comes under the same jurisdiction.”